“Lost”
Arts Every Day Dance Lesson
Fresno Unified Visual and Performing Arts Department
Fresno County Office of Education
Space of your own:
Introduce students to the concept “find a space of your own.” Have them move around the room
until they find a space where they are not touching anyone and have an invisible bubble of air
around them. Have them spread their arms and legs to make sure that they are not invading
someone else’s space. Remind students that throughout dance they will need to maintain a
“space of their own” unless told to touch or partner with someone. When they are moving they
need to be aware of others and move in order to maintain their space.
 Fourth Grade Dance Standard 5.3: Demonstrate recognition of personal space and
respect for the personal space of others.
Freeze-pose command:
It is important to develop a command to use with students during dance activities to get them to
stop and listen. One way is to introduce and practice the “freeze pose” command until students
can freeze immediately on hearing the command.
Dance Warm-Ups:
 Roll the head gently, nodding up and down, then looking side to side;
 Slowly roll the shoulders forward, then backward;
 Circle the arms forward, then backwards. Swing the arms;
 Twist the upper body at the waist, then bend side to side, and forward and backward;
 Rotate the hips clockwise, then counterclockwise;
 Bend the knees deeply;
 Shake out the legs, one at a time;
 Roll each ankle in circles, clockwise and counterclockwise;
 Stretch the whole body, rising on toes and stretching the arms toward the ceiling;
 Shake out the whole body.
Dance Integrated Lesson
Objective: Students explore axial and locomotor movements and combine them with emotional
body and facial expressions to create a dance.
Vocabulary: Axial/non-locomotor movement (movement anchored to one spot by a body part
organized around the axis of the body): stretching, reaching, twisting, bending, turning in place,
gesturing); locomotor movement (movement through space from one spot to another: walking,
running, galloping, jumping, hopping, skipping, sliding, leaping); expressive qualities: ideas and
emotions communicated by the movement patterns of a dance composition.
1. Introduce the term axial/non-locomotor movement. Demonstrate axial movement (twisting
and reaching). Ask students to name more axial movements. Make sure that students understand
ART EDUCATION Susan Hansen
1
Fresno Unified School District
2009
that axial means keeping one part of the body anchored to a spot while moving around the axis of
the body.
2. Students practice axial movements making sure one part of their body is anchored to a spot.
Ask students to do the axial movements with the addition of emotions e.g. twist sadly, twist
happily.
3. Introduce the term locomotor movement. Demonstrate locomotor movement (walking and
running) and ask students to name more locomotor movements. Make sure students understand
that locomotor means moving through space from one point to another.
4. Students practice locomotor movements moving from one side of the room to another.
5. Line students up and ask them to move across the floor with a locomotor movement that you
choose. Ask them to add emotion to the movement e.g. “Walk across the floor sadly. Now come
back walking happily.” Ask students how the emotions change the movement. Ask students to
explain how they showed moving sadly or happily. What did their bodies do; what expressions
did their faces have?
6. Ask students to name activities they do on the playground and then to classify them as
locomotor or axial. Ask students to tell how they feel when they win or lose when playing a
game and how their feelings show in their movements.
 Fourth Grade Dance Standard 1.5: Describe a specific movement, using appropriate
dance vocabulary.
7. Read a story or poems about school activities to students and ask them to brainstorm
locomotor and axial movements that reflect the ideas in the poems. Brainstorm emotions and
feelings that go with the story. (Below is a sample poem.)
Lost
I cannot find my basketball.
I cannot find my locker.
I cannot find my homework,
which is really quite a shocker.
I cannot find my lunch box.
Worse, I cannot find my glasses.
I’m going to have a rotten day
Until I find my glasses.
Bruce Lansky
ART EDUCATION Susan Hansen
Fresno Unified School District
2009
2
In third grade HM Anthology pg. 49
8. Create a dance based on a poem or story using locomotor and axial movements and emotional
gestures.
Use the brainstormed activities and emotions to reflect the poem or story.
 count of 8 of locomotor movement and one emotion
 count of 8 of axial movement and another emotion
 count of 8 of a different locomotor movement and another emotion
 count of 8 of axial movement and an emotion
This can be done whole class as an introduction to the dance creation. If time allows, cooperative
groups of four create their own dances and perform them for other groups. The other groups
become the audience for the performers. Audience skills then can be added to the lesson.
 Third Grade Dance Standard 1.1: Combine and perform locomotor and axial
movements.
 Third Grade Dance Standard 2.2: Improvise and select multiple possibilities to solve
a given movement problem.
 Fourth Grade Dance Standard 2.5: Convey a range of feelings through postures and
movements.
Physical Education: Dance fulfills some of the physical education standards and can be taught
during P.E. time. Physical Education Standard Two: Students demonstrate knowledge of
movement concepts, principles, and strategies that apply to the learning and performance
of physical activities.
9. Evaluation
Describe
 Ask students to describe the axial and locomotor movements they used or observed in
the dance.
 Ask students to describe the emotions they witnessed in the dance and how the
dancers moved to make the emotion clear.
 Fourth Grade Dance Standard 4.3: Describe ways in which a dancer effectively
communicates ideas and moods.
Analyze
 Ask students to tell how they decided to move once they knew which emotion they
were going to portray. Did they have to think differently about the axial and locomotor
movements?
Interpret
 Ask students to imagine how the audience would feel looking at their dances. Would
the audience know which movements were sad or happy (or other emotions). If
students were audiences watching the other groups do their dances, were they able to
indentify each part of the dance and notice the changes?
Evaluate
 Ask students to decide if their dance helped tell the poem or the story.
ART EDUCATION Susan Hansen
Fresno Unified School District
2009
3

Ask students what they would change or revise to help tell the story or get the emotion
across to the audience.
 Ask students to tell what they had to do to create the dance and solve the dance
problem and to make the dance successful.
 Third Grade Dance Standard 4.1: Name specific criteria to assess the quality of
dance.
10. Assessment
Highest level of achievement- students combined a variety of axial and locomotor movements
with emotional gestures to reflect the ideas in a story or poem.
Dance Standard
3rd Grade 2.2:
Improvise and
select multiple
possibilities to
solve a given
movement
problem.
Novice
1
Student/group
struggles with
improvising 4
groups of 8
counts of axial
and locomotor
movements.
May have one
count of 8
completed.
Practitioner
2
Student/group
asks for
intervention or
follows the
direction of
others to
improvise their
dance of
locomotor and
axial movements.
Facial and body
gestures may or
may not be
added to the
movements.
Apprentice 3
Student/group
decides on the
dance of 4
groups of 8
counts of
locomotor and
axial movements
after one or two
attempts-very
little revision
occurred. Body
postures and
facial
expressions are
added to the
movements.
4th Grade 2.5:
Convey a range
of feelings
through
postures and
movements.
Student/group
has trouble
showing emotion
with body
gesture, facial
expression, and
movements.
Student/group
shows one
emotion
throughout their
dance
improvisation.
Student/group
shows opposite
emotions using
facial
expressions,
body gestures,
and movements
in their dance
improvisation.
ART EDUCATION Susan Hansen
Fresno Unified School District
2009
Expert
4
Student/group
improvises a
dance of 4
groups of 8
counts of
locomotor and
axial movements
that were
selected for a
dance from
several
improvisations.
Facial and body
postures
reflecting
emotions are
added to the
movements.
Student/group
conveys a range
of feeling and
emotion with
their body
gestures and
facial
expressions in
conjunction with
locomotor and
axial movements.
4